applied creativity

Rodney Hill, a Texas A&M professor of architecture, has been named one of 2012’s “25 Most Admired Educators” by the Design Futures Council, another teaching honor for his already bulging trophy case.

No textbooks, no tests, no scantrons — Prof. Rodney Hill’s creativity class doesn’t have a trace of the elements found in a traditional college course, instead relying on discovery and innovation; it’s not every class that requires students to sign a non-disclosure agreement before attending lectures.

As higher education leaders across the nation wrangle with budget constraints and consider reforms aimed at doing more with less, Texas A&M College of Architecture educators continue to embrace the studio, the time-tested cornerstone of design education, as the most critical component of modern design pedagogy.

As a semifinalist in a national solar power design competition, a student team from the Texas A&M College of Architecture’s Design Process class is building a portable solar-powered umbrella capable of powering portable electronic devices.

Faculty and graduate students at Texas A&M’s Department of Visualization took a few minutes each to presented their current research and creative endeavors Oct. 18, 2011 during the department’s fast-paced second annual research symposium held on the fourth floor of the Langford C building.

The Department of Visualization at the Texas A&M College of Architecture is offering a new, technology-infused Master of Fine Arts degree program that in fall 2011 will begin preparing students for careers in digital art education, fine arts, entertainment and media industries, as well as art as a vocation.

The 13th Annual Texas A&M College of Architecture Research Symposium: Built, Natural Virtual was held Monday, Oct. 24 at the Langford Architecture Center on the Texas A&M campus.

Students who use Rhino, a software program for 3-D modeling, are invited to register for a Sept. 29–Oct. 1 workshop at Texas A&M’s Langford Architecture Center led by Gabriel Esquivel, assistant professor of architecture, and hosted by SEED International.

Texas A&M graduate visualization student Sarah Beth Eisinger’s work earned a $10,000 scholarship from Sony Pictures Imageworks, an Academy Award-winning, state-of-the-art visual effects and character animation company. She has previous experience at Pixar, Walt Disney Animation Studios and Google.

An idea to rent folding bicycles from a kiosk earned first prize and $3000 for Patrick Daniels, a Master of Science in Land Development student, and Martin Griggs, a Master of Urban Planning student, in the 2011 Ideas Challenge, sponsored by the Center for New Ventures and Entrepreneurship.

The college's Azimuth coffee shop has gained a bold, new look from a permanent installation designed by Elena Manferdini, principal of a Los Angeles firm specializing in computer-aided design of exotic forms. The structure was fabricated by students at the college's Digital Fabrication Facility.

Rodney Hill, professor of architecture at Texas A&M, added another award to his lengthy list of teaching honors May 2 when he was named a Piper Professor by the Minnie Stevens Piper Foundation. Hill was one of ten academicians receiving the 2011 award honoring superior educators, which includes a $5,000 honorarium.

As part of an international design experiment in social media, students in a design studio joined architecture students from around the globe for a collaboration with top Italian designers that culminated in an April 15 exhibit at the renowned Milan Design Fair in Milan, Italy.

A team from Texas A&M reached the semifinal round of a worldwide competition seeking university students' ideas to solve social and environmental problems. Their idea involved kids trading points they’d earned playing video games for donations to charitable causes.

Two former Texas A&M design students that created the hugely successful Glif, a stand and tripod mount for the iPhone 4, are back with a new project: a stylus called The Cosmonaut that works with Apple’s iPad and other touchscreen devices.